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A
Anonymous523
Participant
September 3, 2013
Answered

InDesign CC - Spell check not working.

  • September 3, 2013
  • 27 replies
  • 59218 views

I can purposefully type a misspelled word in InDesign and the Spell Check doesn't catch it. In fact it doesn't seem to work at all.

    Correct answer laura-808

    One thing to check, which I just discovered, is in Indesign Preferences/Spelling/Find there are tick boxes for what you'd like it to find and I found 'Misspelled Words' was unchecked. Here you can also Enable Dynamic Spelling. Pretty basic but seems to be what my problem was.

    27 replies

    L
    laura-808Correct answer
    Participant
    March 28, 2025

    One thing to check, which I just discovered, is in Indesign Preferences/Spelling/Find there are tick boxes for what you'd like it to find and I found 'Misspelled Words' was unchecked. Here you can also Enable Dynamic Spelling. Pretty basic but seems to be what my problem was.

      Sean5CF1
      Sean5CF1
      Inspiring
      May 30, 2022

      2 things

      the "correct answer" doesn't work. so not correct

      and why do i purchase expensive software to be told to press "ESC" and "W" to make asimple spell check work?

       

      Fix this problem

      Barb Binder
      Community Expert
      Barb BinderCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      May 30, 2022

      Hi @Sean5CF1:

       

      The original question—written in 2013—is vague. We don't know why spell check didn't work for the OP because no details were provided. We also don't know who marked it as correct—the OP or one of the moderators. If the OP marked it as correct, then it was correct for their situation. All of the possible answers are in the thread, however. You also chose not to provide details so we can't give you a single answer. I'm happy to summarize and you can pick the one that you need. 

       

      1. The answer marked as correct referred to Dynamic Spelling. Is that what you are asking about? If not, move on to 2. Most of us work in Normal view, and both Check Spelling and Dynamic Spelling work in Normal view. If you would like to view your page in Preview Mode, you can choose it from the View menu, the Toolbox or tap the letter W.  If you are in Preview Mode, Dynamic Spelling doesn't work. Traditional spell check does work. If you want to use Dynamic Spelling, you will need to exit Preview. You can choose Normal view from the View menu, the Toolbox or press Esc (to make sure you have the Selection tool) then tap the letter. The shortcuts to move from one view to another are optional—you don't have to use them.
      2. What language is assigned to the text? If no language is assigned, InDesign can't find misspelled words because it uses the assigned language dictionary. If you have a language assigned and spell check still isn't working, go to 3. 
      3. Rebuild your preferences. Although Adobe's CC installer defaults to migrating preferences when you upgrade, this tends not to be a good idea because preferences become corrupt over time. When InDesign begins behaving erratically, it's time to rebuild them. Personally, I turn off the default to migrate preferences and spend 5 minutes setting them back up after an upgrade. It's not a big deal.

       

      ~Barb

      ~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training
      A
      Andy5E9A
      Participant
      May 23, 2022

      This happens regularly with updates and it takes me ages to find out how to get it back. Why cant they keep all our settings as they are on thier updates!  Very annoying.

      filipes31572705
      filipes31572705
      Participant
      February 11, 2021

      David your advice was spot on. I was trying to get it sorted for a while, and then I used your tips, sorted, great stuff mate! thank you!

      C
      cameronm14765299
      Participant
      November 10, 2020

      Edit > Spelling > enable dynamic spelling.

      cleared the problem right up

      N
      nottusnitram
      Participant
      November 10, 2020
      Cheers it worked 🙂
        C
        cameronm14765299
        Participant
        November 10, 2020

        Anytime, glad to help

        J
        Jingledale
        Participating Frequently
        May 5, 2020

        Everybody, all I had to do was the following:

         

        Go to PREFERENCES > DICTIONARY. In the boxes labeled  HYPHENATION and SPELLING use the pull-down to change to Hunspell.

          N
          neilb20648771
          Participant
          June 12, 2020

          Thanks so much! FYI this worked for me AFTER restarting my Mac. Changing the prefs to Hunspell before that didn't work.

          H
          henrybakerDC@gmail.com
          Participant
          April 4, 2020

          W still didn't work for me.

          J
          JenWong
          Participant
          November 7, 2019

          These are the steps you should take:

          1. Go to Edit > Preferences > Spelling and check the box for Enable Dynamic Spelling 

          2. Go to Edit > Spelling and make sure there is a checkmark next to Dynamic Spelling

          3. Make sure you are in Normal mode, not Preview! (Shortcut key is W, or click and hold the very last icon on the toolbar on the left.)

          M
          mcknightj
          Participant
          November 6, 2019

          ARGH!!!!! I jsut found a tab in preferences called: Enable Dynamic Spelling that was not checked!!!!! Did you try this?

          M
          mcknightj
          Participant
          November 6, 2019

          nope, that didn't work either. I have been havving the same problem since cc upgrade.

          S
          Sean novice
          Inspiring
          November 6, 2019

          Not sure why but after a restart (pc) it began working and has continued to work with the 400+ files i work with

          So solved for me but not sure why it wasn't previously

          Current tabs

          Edit--> Preferences --> Spelling --> all buttons clicked

          Edit--> Preferences --> Autocorrect --> enabled autocorrect

          Edit--> Preferences --> Dictionary--> language english UK, hyphenation and spelling "hunspell", compose using "user dictionary and coument", all other buttons clicked

           

          Good luck all

           

            S
            Sean novice
            Inspiring
            October 14, 2019

            October 2019- still happening

            In word if i turn autocorrect on it works, what's going on here?

            Please don't repeat all the "fixes" on the net- been there done that

            N
            nickgross
            Participant
            October 16, 2019
            Something that worked for me was checking that the dictionary in preferences was set to the same dictionary as that of the paragraph style. For example, I had English-UK at the preference level then, English-AUS at the paragraph style. I changed both to UK and it starting underlining mistakes again.
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